Wednesday, June 21, 2006

My time up here in the village

Ok, I'm going to try to summarize this quite a bit because I'm not sure how long I will be here in an internet cafe able to post stuff. Anyway, it's kind of boring up here, but there are some interesting things. For one, the fireworks. They're really more like firecrackers, but still fun. We got some, including some that are kind of like bottle rockets, so hopefully we'll have some fun tonight. Also, we can watch the World Cup; the village we're in is a lot more developed than I thought it would be, and some of the people have satellite TV.

I've started running some, too, to get in shape for cross country this fall. I'm counting on getting a big advantage running up here at over five thousand feet high. I'm also running on the only paved road, which goes up the mountaings, so I'm counting on getting a huge advantage from running up the mountain (my estimate is that it was a couple of thousand feet up that I ran). The weather is even very nice in the morning to run in. Later it gets really hot, though. Also, this morning I ran by some kind of school on my way down, and the teenage guys howled/shouted at me very loudly. I believe they also threw some rocks in my direction. A little further on I met someone who was a lot nicer. He wanted to practice his English on me, and I found out that he travels quite a bit in the States, working for Taco Bell. He owns something like 5 plots of land in town, and I believe he owns the Hummer H3 I saw in town. Needless to say, a navy blue Hummer looks very out of place in a small Mazatec village. He said that now he doesn't know many people, and they were kind of scared of him so they didn't talk much. It was kind of sad. Apparently he left town when he was a young teenager, when his father was killed.

First pic: Trout ponds in the village where we are. They also have a restaurant where they sell trout, and I have to say that it was quite good.Second pic: A waterfall we stopped at on the way to the village.Third pic: A dog in the doorway of a relatively nice house in the village.

3 comments:

Oaxacadad
said...

Very "modern" village compared to San Juan Lealao. The pic of the waterfall is beautiful. It almost looks fake it's so nice. The trout sounds good. Must be like a development enterprise of some kind. Glad you're finding some things of interest in the village. I am wondering if you'll get a ride in the Hummer before you leave town!! --Oaxacadad

I just received the link to your blog! Your pictures and writings are really wonderful. I know your parents and sister are going to be there soon. But I hope you don't stop adding to your blog once they arrive. I would love to read and see more!